Debutante Fundraising Ideas

Being chosen to participate in a debutante pageant can be an exciting ordeal for any young lady. It is an opportunity for you to be presented "Pageant Style" as a young leader in your community. Once you have been chosen to participate in the pageant your goal is to raise more money than the other participants in order to be crowned "Ms. Debutante." Many organizations will provide a suggested fundraising method to be used. However, there are other ways to raise money to help you win the pageant.

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Raffle Tickets

Purchase an item and raffle it off for $5 per ticket. Popular items to raffle off are electronic items, such as televisions, iPods and computers. Before purchasing an item to raffle off, consider the amount of contacts you have access to. Consider whether or not you have enough contacts to make a profit by selling them tickets. If you pay $200 for a phone to be raffled off and you only have 20 contacts, you will be losing money instead of making a profit. If you are bold enough to do so, you can also sell your raffle tickets by using a door-to-door sales method. When using the door-to-door sales method, simply let the homeowner know that you are participating in a debutante pageant and that you are raffling off the item with hopes of raising enough money to win the pageant. You can create raffle tickets online by visiting websites such as RafflePrinter.com and PrintBox.com. Before conducting a raffle be sure to contact your State Attorney General's office to verify "Charitable Gaming" laws. In some states, such as Alabama, charitable gaming is not allowed, whereas in Mississippi, it is perfectly legal.

Ad Sponsorship

Visit local businesses to see if they would like to purchase ad space in your debutante souvenir booklet. Many businesses will buy ads because it is a cheap way to market their services to thousands, depending upon the size of your pageant. The ads generally sell for $25 for every 1/4 of a page. A full-page ad would cost the business $100. Because ad sponsorship is a route that most debutantes take to raise money, you should start knocking on business doors as soon as you realize you are going to participate in the pageant. By doing so, you can beat the crowd of other debutantes to the businesses. The early bird is likely to get the sponsorship.

Car Wash

Meet with a local restaurant manager and ask permission to setup a car wash on their lot to raise money for your pageant. You can charge $5 to wash customer's cars while they are dining inside of the restaurant. If you will be using the restaurant's water supply to wash the cars, the manager may require a percentage of your profits to cover the water bill. To thoroughly wash the customer's cars, you will need a water hose, plenty of towels, mild detergent and tire cleaner.

Kiosk

Contact a local department store or grocery store manager to ask permission to set up a kiosk in front of the store to solicit donations for your debutante pageant. Many managers will allow you to do this as long as you are not haggling or harassing their customers for money. One way to setup a no-haggling kiosk is to set up a table that has a banner on the front of it stating "Debutante Sponsorship" or other wording to let the entering customers know the purpose of your table. You should have a storage box near you to store the money in as you collect it. By storing the money in a box, it will prevent you from having a lot of cash on your table, which can be a magnet for robbery.